First Niagara incorporating technology into strategic plan

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. is in the early stages of developing a strategic investment plan that could cost as much as $250 million between now and 2018.

President and CEO Gary Crosby told investors Thursday that the Buffalo company is on time and on budget with the plan, which was first announced by Crosby in January. The project calls for a complete overhaul of the company’s technology infrastructure.

“While I want to emphasize that our strategic investment plan is not driven by technology, the simple fact is that banks are extremely dependent on technology to operate and that dependency is growing rapidly,” Crosby said during the first-quarter earnings conference call. “Banks must be prepared to compete in the digital marketplace where simple, easy and fast are prerequisites to success and better, more efficient technology is a means to substantially improved profitability and shareholder value.”

First Niagara Financial Group is the parent company of First Niagara Bank N.A., the No. 2 bank in Western New York based on deposit market share. Following a tremendous period of growth between 2008 and 2012, the company now operates across four states.

Crosby said there are three components to the investment project — new products and services, “next generation” infrastructure and product integration capabilities that will “significantly” reduce the cost of delivering the first two components. Crosby said approximately half of the total project cost will be spent on new products and services.

According to Crosby, there are two end goals: being able to decrease the amount of time it will take the company to get new products to market and upping shareholder value.

He said the bank continues to attract “top talent” from other commercial banks. One of those new hires is Joseph Saffire, a Western New York native who spent years working for HSBC Bank USA N.A., which was at one time the largest bank in Buffalo.